LIFESTYLE | Look After Your Boobies

I love raising awareness.

Last month, was all about Breast Cancer Awareness and my bae’s at Boux Avenue set up a partnership with Breast Cancer Care, which was AMAZING of them. They donated £1 to BCC for every bra fitting during October! They also matched all donations given by customers. I was supposed to get this post up in October, to be in line with this, but I had a little think…

Awareness days, weeks, and months are brilliant. But I can’t help but feel once it hits midnight of said date (in this case, 1st November) people are just a bit like, RIGHT THAT IS IT FOR THIS YEAR, CYA NEXT OCTOBER. That is something that I am not a fan of. For that reason, I wanted this post to go up this month instead, let’s KEEP people talking about Breast Cancer.

Tara Pleated Bra* in the shade, Strawberry

A breast cancer collaboration of course needed to feature a pink bra! I absolutely love the Boux Avenue Tara plunge, it is extremely comfortable with a t-shirt bra style material… or it is comfortable because I have finally been measured to wear the correct flipping size… who knows, silly kayleigh! I’m sad that they have stopped selling it now, but there are also some other lovely styles too in the same strawberry/raspberry shade, such as the Chloe, Lauren, and the Lucie Triangle sets.

Quite often, people have their own *specific* charities that are very close and personal to them for various reasons, and they choose to only give to those. Which is completely fair enough, we can’t all donate to EVERY charity out there. I find people sometimes think it is ‘unfair’ that cancer, perhaps receives more attention and funds than any other illness out there. The world hasn’t intended for it to feel this way. SO many people are effected by cancer ..

e v e r y s i n g l e d a y,

whether through direct connection, or family and friends, which makes the illness so scary and close to home. After all, they say 1 in 2 people will experience cancer in their lives, in some sort. Cancer research has come A LONG way over the last ten years, especially in the breast cancer department, but we are still not completely there, lives are still sadly being taken by the cruel beast.

Breast Cancer Care isn’t your typical breast cancer charity. They offer care, support and guidance for people who have ALREADY received the awful news. The psychological strain of a diagnosis can be one of the most difficult things to deal with. Donating your money to BCC could help sufferers access information and support through Helpline services, care from specialist nurses, and Moving Forward courses for after treatment. All very valuable support tools, for the people that need it.

If you can’t donate, how can you help? … awareness of course!

It’s not all about the money. We need to TALK. We need to SHARE experiences. That’s the thing about breast cancer. The QUICKER you find it, the higher the success rate at beating the illness. So you need to GIVE YOUR BOOBIES A FEEL. RIGHT NOW. DO IT. Get to know ‘what normal feels like’ so you can keep progress, and document any changes.

It takes just 5 minutes, and could save your life. It’s easy to forget isn’t it? Life is BUSY. But there are other ways to fit it in. Do it in the shower if you have to, ask someone else to…. do whatever you can, get to know your boobies! We pay big attention to what our hair looks like, making sure to keep it maintained – root touch ups, frequent trims, taking time to style it… so why neglect your boobs?

Credit: Breast Cancer Care

This is the most important part of this post. Share the above image to EVERYONE on all social timelines. Get people to check their boobs, on a regular basis. Flipping’ make them look right now if you can. I worry that people only expect to keep an eye out for a big visible lump, but that isn’t always the case, there are lots of different things to look out for.

I suffer from health anxiety, really quite badly.

I’m terrified of getting a life threatening illness, which I suppose you could say most people in the world are, but not to the extent that I fear, I guess. Before I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the doctors originally suspected that I was suffering with Health Anxiety.

Turns out, my obsessive rituals began in the first place, to counteract the ‘ability’ to catch an illness. At least that is what my mind told me. I started to feel completely responsible for everything that happened to me. If I DIDN’T check my body for certain symptoms, the ‘what if’ would drive my mind crazy. What if later down the line, I find out that I’m diagnosed with a terminal illness? then it would have been ALL my fault… I could have prevented that from happening to me.

I’ve had a scare before. I noticed an itchy, discoloured patch on my boob about two years ago. I worried that doctors would think I was being silly, and wasting their time. But I went with my gut feeling, and had it checked out. It wasn’t worth the endless worry. The doctors asked me to keep a good eye on it, but hearing that they weren’t overly concerned about it made me feel a lot calmer. It isn’t worth ignoring. Go to the doctors if you are worried about anything to do with your body. It’s YOUR body, and you know when something isn’t quite right.

If you still haven’t given your boobs a feel…. then WHAT THE FLIP ARE YOU WAITING FOR! do it now! Please share this post to all your friends and family, it is SO important to be cautious and safe. If you would like to buy a breast cancer care pin, do let me know – they look amazing on leather jackets, coats, all sorts – let everyone know that you are looking after your boobs! As well as supporting those that are in need. Big hugs,

6 Comments

Thanks for the reminder! Just given my boobies a nice good feel! Haha! No but really, this post is great and you're right we should constantly be spreading awareness not only for one day/week/month! The illustration here is great, because tbh I (and I'm sure a lot of people) didn't really know what really to check for (except a lump).

This post is brilliant, and it's amazing you're helping raise awareness, especially with making women aware of how to check themselves properly. Breast cancer is such a personal issue with me, my mum was diagnosed a couple of years ago and it was a scary time, and not long after she was diagnosed I had my own scare too. Cancer is a horrific disease, and it not only affects the person who has been diagnosed, but their friends and family too. Thankfully my results came back all clear, and after a masectomy my mum was given the all clear too. She has to go back for regular check ups obviously, and because of it all we're all much more aware of checking regularly! Your post is great, and I'm glad there's someone out there who can give a detailed description on how to check properly!

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Oh such a great post Kayleigh! We should be more aware of our bodies and nothing screams 'regular checking' as breast cancer – or any cancer for that matter. It scares me to death and I admire every single woman or a man that had to go through it. It doesn't matter what month but we should all be raising awareness more.

Well done for raising awareness and reminding us ladies to check our boobs! I usually check mine when I'm in the shower, but haven't done so for a couple weeks so will do that tonight – thanks for the reminder 🙂

This was such a good post! I love seeing people spreading the word about self checking. It's really good of you to share how to check yourself as well as many people may not know how to do this! Again, really loved your post! Rachael x ~ blissfulgemini.blogspot.co.uk